MTS Distributions at the Bitsavers Software Archive

The MTS distribution materials are available in the Bitsavers.org software archive and in the U-M's Deep Blue digital archive. The information below provides an overview of the materials that are available at Bitsavers.org. The same materials are available in Deep Blue, but they are packaged somewhat differently.

Description of the MTS distribution archive

This is a description of the MTS distribution materials available from the software archive at bitsavers.org (http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/univOfMichigan/mts/). This material is repackaged from version 4 of the MTS Distribution archive DVD that was created on 24 June 2011 by Mike Alexander and which is available at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The archive contains materials from the six full and the ten partial MTS distributions as well as from two redistributions created between 1968 and 1988. Distributions 1.0 through 3.1 supported the IBM S/360 Model 67, distribution 3.2 supported both the IBM S/360-67 and the IBM S/370 architecture, and distributions D3.3 through D6.0 supported just the IBM S/370 architecture and its extensions.

Working with the D6.0 distribution materials it is possible to create an IPLable version of MTS. A new D6.0A distribution of MTS makes this easier. D6.0A is based on the D6.0 version of MTS from 1988 with various fixes and updates to make operation under Hercules in 2012 smoother. In the future an IPLable version of MTS will be made available based upon the version of MTS that was in use at the University of Michigan in 1996 shortly before MTS was shutdown.

Archive contents

Included here you will find:

README.txt This file.COPYRIGHT.txt The copyright, license, and limitation of liability statement for the MTS distribution materials.mtsDistDoc A directory that contains notes and other documentsdescribing each MTS Distribution and the lbltp program.dn.m.tar.gz tar.gz archives that contain the MTS Distributiontapes in AWS tape format for each distribution togetherwith the notes and other documents describing thedistribution.lbltp.tar.gz A tar.gz archive containing executables, source code, and documentation for a program to read AWS tapes. The program operates under Windows, Mac OS, and Unix. It understandsand can decode the *FS format tapes that were usedfor MTS distributions starting with D2.2.

Documentation

The notes and documentation for each MTS distribution are in MTSDistDoc as well as in the tar.gz archives for each distribution. Different documentation files are available for different distributions, but the files include:

Dm.n-NOTES.txt General notes for the distribution. Starting with D3.0the general notes include a general description of the distribution components and format of the distribution driver file listing.Dm.n-DESCR.txt Description of the distribution.Dm.n-OLDSYS.txt Instructions for existing MTS installations.Dm.n-NEWSYS.txt Instructions for new MTS installations.Dm.n-DRIVER.txt Distribution driver file (positive line numbers only).The format of a driver file is given as part of thedescription of the *DEDIT program in "MTS Volume 2: PublicFile Descriptions".Dm.n-LIST.txt The distribution driver file listing.Dm.n-INDEX.txt A distribution driver file index listing.Dn.m-5LINE.txt A listing showing the first five and last five lines of each tape file.Dm.n-MEMOS.txt A list of UM Computing Center Memos at the time of thedistribution.Dn.m-LOG.txt A file which is a console log of the process of copying the original distribution tapes to 3480 cartridge tapes in 1996. There were problems reading some of the originaltapes and these log files may be useful when determiningwhether the copies here contain what you want, although we tried to mention all such problems in the notes below.Dm.n-CF.*, Dm.n-CHGFRM.*, Dm.n-CHGFORM* Change form data and files.D1.0-TAPES.pdf A scan of the handwritten notes listing the contents forthe first version of D1.0 (UBC).D4.2A-xxx.* The driver files for the D4.2A redistribution tapessubmitted by SFU, UBC, UNE, and WSU.D6.0-MTS-DOC.txt A brief description of MTS, the MTS Consortium, and the terms under which MTS was licensed to new sites.

Additional documentation

Additional MTS documentation is available:

An FAQ for MTS D6.0 -- Creating and running the D6.0 version of MTS under Hercules.

Distribution driver files

Starting with Distribution 3.0 most MTS distributions were created using a "driver file" which is a file containing information about what should be written on the tape and where to find it, as well as comments about each file. The MTSDistDoc directory contains the driver file for each distribution that used one. Line numbers are significant in MTS driver files. Each file on the tape is assigned a component and sub-component number and the line describing that file is in a line "n.mmm" where "n" is the component number and "mmm" is the sub-component number. The comments are in negative lines in the same file and the lines between 0 and .999 contain directory information (in later driver files). Only the positive lines have been copied to the individual driver files in this archive and the line numbers have been lost (of course). Since the text of each line also contains the component and sub-component number, they could be recovered. The original driver files are on the tapes and lbltp could be used to get the line numbers also. See the notes for distribution 3.0 or any later distribution for more information about driver files.

Among many other items of information the driver files give the tape names and tape file numbers for each component included in a distribution. In fact, because most MTS distributions were available on either high density or low density magnetic tapes, the driver file lists two pairs of tape names and tape file numbers, one pair for each density. The simulated tapes in the distribution archive were all created from the higher density tapes.

Simulated distribution tapes and the lbltp program

Many of the tapes in MTSDistTapes are in MTS *FS tape format. This is the format used by the *FS program in MTS to save MTS files on tape. This format preserves MTS line numbers and record boundaries without using line ending characters. The directory lbltp contains a program that will read these tapes in Windows and Mac OS X. The source is included and it should be easy to recompile it for most any Unix system. See the ReadMe file in this directory for more information.

Simulated tapes from each of the full (Dm.0) and partial (Dm.n) MTS distributions and a few of the redistributions (RDnn or Dm.nx) are available, but not all of the tapes from each distribution were preserved. In particular some of the utility tapes, dump/restore tapes, and most of the redistribution tapes were lost.

Full distributions include all of the MTS components. Partial distributions contain only those MTS components that changed or were added since the previous full or partial distribution. Redistributions contain less formally organized materials from MTS installations other than just UM.

Some of the simulated tapes are unlabeled and some are "volume label only" (VLO) tapes. VLO tapes are unique to MTS (or the lbltp program) and consist of a VOL1 label with the rest of the tape constructed as an unlabeled tape (tape marks without tape labels separate tape files).

The character text data on the distribution tapes is EBCDIC. In the documentation files that have been extracted from the distribution tapes, the EBCDIC data has been translated to ASCII (UTF-8).

To extract files from the distribution tapes:

If you haven't already done so, download, uncompress, and extract the lbltp.tar.gz archive.
1a. Documentation is included in lbltp/ReadMe.txt and lbltp/Writeup/utility.html.
1b. Executable versions of the lbltp program are available for Windows (lbltp/Windows/lbltp.exe)
and Mac OSX (lbltp/MacOSX/lbltp).
1c. C source code is included to allow the program to be compiled/built for other
platforms (lbltp/Source).

Figure out which simulated tape(s) and the number(s) of the file(s) on the tape(s) that contain the file(s) you are interested in by looking at distribution driver file listings (Dm.n-LIST.txt), looking directly at the distribution driver file(s) (Dm.n-DRIVER.txt), or at one of the other documentation files for distributions available in the MTSDistDoc directory.

Download the required simulated tape file(s).

Use the lbltp program to extract the files from the simulated tape.
4a. Use lbltp's "open" command to select a simulated tape file.
4b. Use lbltp's "list" command to verify that you are working with the correct tape file.
4c. Use lbltp's "copy" command to extract files from the simulated tape.
4d. For unlabeled, non-FS format tapes, use the "format" and "output" options on the copy command.
4e. The lbltp program will normally select the correct options by default, but you can use the
"translate" and "line" options on lbltp's copy command to control translation from EBCDIC
to ASCII and how MTS line numbers are processed.

Distributions

The rest of these notes describe each of the MTS distributions in MTSDistTapes and MTSDistDoc.

D1.0 (October 1968)

There were two versions of the D1.0 distribution. The first version was prepared for the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the second was prepared for Newcastle University (UNE/NUMAC). The second version was created by copying the tapes from the first version and appending new and updated files to the end. Only the second version (UNE/NUMAC) is included here.

d1.0.t1t2.aws contains distribution 1 tape 1 in files 1 through 259 and distribution 1 tape 2 in files 260 through 472. It was originally, and still is, unlabeled. All files are format FB(6400,80). The documentation for this distribution consists of the "5 line" listing in DIST1.0-5LINE which contains the first and last 5 lines of each file on the tape, a PDF containing a scan of handwritten notes made while the first (UBC) version was being prepared, and a "D1.0-NOTES.txt" file containing Mike's notes based on an inspection of the tape.

D1mod1 (1969?)

Distribution 1 Modification 1 was a small addendum to distribution 1.0 contained on one unlabeled tape. It has been copied to d1mod1.aws as an unlabeled tape. All files are format FB(4000,80). The only other documentation for this is the "5 line" listing in D1MOD1.0-5LINE.

D2.0 (February 1970)

d2.0t1t2.aws contains distribution 2.0 tape 1 (staff tape S517) in files 1 through 442 and D2.0 tape 2 (S518) in files 443 through 660. It was originally unlabeled and still is. All files are format FB(4000,80).

d2.0.filesave.aws is a copy of staff tape S519 which has the distribution 2.0 file save tape in files 1 and 2. This is the format used by the backup/restore programs in MTS and is probably useless outside MTS. It is essentially a track by track dump of the tracks used by each file on the disk. Files 3 and 4 are copies of the third edition (November 1969) of MTS Volume 2: Public File Descriptions. File 3 is the text90 (?) input and file 4 is the printed output. File 5 is the first preliminary edition of the MAD/I manual dated September 1969. File 6 is a paper by D. R. Reddy and W. M. McKeeman titled "Computer Programming: An Introduction to PL". From the preface: "PL, a dialect of PL/1, is specifically designed for teaching beginning programming students. This system was developed at Stanford University as a result of a student programming language project initiated by Professors McKeeman and Reddy."

D2.0.tape3.aws and D2.0.tape4.aws are copies of the distribution 2.0 Basic (S520) and Full (S521) Restore Tapes. Both unlabeled. There were read errors on blocks 646 and 647 of file 1 when tape S520 was copied to the cartridge tape. There were also read errors on blocks 131 and 255 of file 2 when tape S521 was copied to the cartridge tape. Both sets of read errors were recovered as well as possible and the tapes may be ok, see the log file for details. These tapes have been copied to D2.0.tape3.aws and D2.0.tape4.aws since it was not clear which was which. Tape 3 is a lot smaller, so it may be the basic restore. It's smaller because most tracks are empty (not formatted). This was back in the days when MTS wrote two records per track (not page size) and formatted the track the first time it wrote to it. The only other documentation for distribution 2 is the "5 line" listing in DIST2.0-5LINE.txt.

D2.1 (June 1970)

Distribution 2.1 was a partial distribution that augmented distribution 2.0. It consisted of one tape in *FSAVE format. *FSAVE was the first attempt to write a program that could be used to save MTS files to tape and there are no current programs that read the tapes it wrote. There is a description of distribution 2.1 in D2.1-DESCR.txt.

d2.1.fs.aws is a copy of the unlabeled D2.1 FSAVE tape (S503) which was converted to *FS format (as understood by lbltp) when it was copied to a cartridge tape. There were problems reading tape file 5 (*LISPCOM), and the resulting file is not valid. *FS complained about "Line number incorrect near lines 2647 and 2270" when it restored it.

d2.1.fsave.aws is a copy of the original unlabeled FSAVE tape for D2.1 before it was converted to *FS format.

D2.2 (1971?)

d2.2.aws is the unlabeled D2.2 tape. There are several files associated with this which were created when the tape was copied. D2.2-DESCR.txt is a copy of the last file on the tape, but only the positive lines were copied and the line numbers were lost. This is a very early format driver file, but it was not actually used to create the D2.2 tape. D2.2-DRIVER.txt is a version of this driver file converted to the current driver file format (but again line numbers and negative lines were lost, see D2.2-LOG.txt for the gory details). The negative lines are the same in these two and could be recovered from the last file on the tape if necessary. D2.2-LIST.txt is a *DEDIT listing of this driver file. D2.2-5LINE.txt is a listing of the first 5 and last 5 lines of files 1 through 123 on the tape (the others are not in a format that nline could handle).

D2.3 (1972?)

d2.3.aws is the unlabeled D2.3 tape. The first 23 files on the tape are an FSAVE tape, containing *BASIC (?). The only documentation for this is the log file from when it was copied to a cartridge tape.

D3.0 (August 1973)

Distribution 3.0 consisted of five *FS tapes and a dump/restore tape. The 5 *FS tapes are in d3.0t1.aws through d3.1t5.aws. The dump/restore tape is in d3.0dr.aws. All the tapes are unlabeled. Originally the dump/restore tape had two files after the apparent end of the tape containing the source for TABLES (file 8) and the listing for the TABLES generator (DECKGEN) (file 9). They were not copied when the tape was copied to a file since they appear to be after the end of the tape. The source for both of these is on the *FS tapes, although there isn't a listing for DECKGEN.

The documentation for this distribution consists of the driver file (D3.0-DRIVER.txt) and a listing of it (D3.0-LIST.txt) as well as a description of the distribution (D3.0-NOTES.txt) and instructions for updating an existing MTS installation (D3.0-OLDSYS.txt). As usual the log for copying the tapes to cartridge tapes is in DIST3.0-LOG.txt.

D3.1 (March 1974)

Distribution 3.1 consisted of one unlabeled *FS tape which has been copied to d3.1t1.aws. There were some problems copying file 273 (the MTS Volume 2 table of contents) from the reel to reel tape to the cartridge tape, but it seem to have been copied correctly after some retries. There is a driver file for this in D3.1-DRIVER.txt and a listing of the driver file in D3.1-LIST.txt.

D3.2 (March 1975)

Distribution 3.2 consisted of two unlabeled *FS tapes which have been copied to d3.2t1.aws and d3.2t2.aws. There were no problems copying the original tapes. Again the driver file and its listing are in D3.2-DRIVER.txt and D3.2-LIST.txt.

D4.0 (August 1977)

Distribution 4 consisted of 3 *FS tapes and a dump/restore tape. The 3 *FS tapes are in d4.0t1.aws through d4.0t3.aws as Volume Label Only (VLO) labeled tapes with volume names D4T1 through D4T3. A VLO tape is a tape that has a VOL1 label but otherwise looks like an unlabeled tape. Only MTS and lbltp support that format. The dump/restore tape wasn't copied to a cartridge tape and so is lost.

The driver file is in D4.0-DRIVER.txt and there is a listing of it in D4.0-LIST.txt. D4.0-INDEX.txt is an index of the driver file sorted by component name. D4.0-NOTES.txt contains a description of the distribution while D4.0-NEWSYS.txt contains instructions for installing it on a new machine and D4.0-OLDSYS.txt contains instructions for upgrading an existing installation. D4.0-MEMOS.txt is a list of all the UM Computing Center Memos that existed at the time the distribution was produced.

D4.1 (May 1978)

Distribution 4.1 consisted of one *FS tape and one dump/restore tape. The notes prepared for D4.1 say that there were two *FS tapes, but there seems to only have been one at 6250 BPI. The driver file index is at the end of the first tape, so it must have been the only tape. The *FS tape is in d4.1t1.aws as a VLO tape with volume name D4.1T1. The dump/restore tape is in d4.1dr.aws as an unlabeled tape.

The documentation for this distribution is similar to distribution 4.0. The main difference is the presence of "change forms". For a while we tried to document changes to MTS with these change forms, but it was never done all that consistently and the practice was dropped after distribution 5.0. D4.1.CHGFORM is a listing of the change forms for distribution 4.1. D4.1.CF.PGM is a Snobol4 program to produce this listing using D4.1.DF.DATA as input. D4.1.CF.DESC is a description of this process.

D4.2 (March 1979)

Distribution 4.2 consisted of two *FS tapes and one dump/restore tape. The dump/restore tape has been lost. The two *FS tapes are in d4.2t1.aws and d4.2t2.aws as VLO labeled tapes with volume names D4.2T1 and D4.2T2. There were problems reading d4.2t1. File 144 (FORTRANH.OBJECT.OC.005) had read errors but was probably recovered ok. Files 321, 322, 330, and all files from 334 to the end of the tape were unreadable and were lost. There were problems with d4.2t2 also, but less severe. File 111 (INTERACTIVE_FORTRAN.INT.SA.031) was unreadable and was truncated after block 11. The documentation for this distribution is similar to distribution 4.1.

D4.2A or RD16 (July 1979)

Distribution 4.2A was also known as Redistribution 16. It was one of a series of "redistributions" where tapes from all the MTS sites were sent to UM and then "redistributed" to the other sites. Little or no attempt was made to merge the contributions into one consistent whole. It consisted of two *FS tapes which are in d4.2at1.aws and d4.2at2.aws as VLO tapes labeled RD16T1 and RD16T2. FS file 64 on tape 1 (FILE_SYSTEM.WRITEI.SA.011) was unreadable on the original tape and is not correct on these tapes.

D4.2A-DRIVER.txt and D4.2A-LIST.txt describe the Michigan contributions to this tape while the other files describe contributions from Simon Fraser University (SFU), the University of British Columbia (UBC), Newcastle University (UNE), and Wayne State University (WSU).

D4.2B or RD17 (October 1979)

Distribution 4.2B was a small distribution consisting of one short *FS tape which is in d4.2bt1.aws as a VLO labeled tape with volume name 4.2BT1. There is a driver file for it in D4.2B-DRIVER.txt with a listing in D4.2B-LIST.txt. D4.2B-NOTES.txt contains a short description of the redistribution taken from the last item in the driver file (9999/001).

D4.3 (May 1980)

Distribution 4.3 consisted of a dump/restore tape (which was not preserved) and two *FS format tapes. The *FS tapes are in d4.3t1.aws and d4.3t2.aws as VLO labeled tapes with volume IDs 4.3T1 and 4.3T2. There were problems copying the original 4.3t1 tape to a cartridge tape. Files 607 and 610 have extra junk at the end and 608 and 611 are missing (these two facts are related, the extra junk is the header for the following file since the tape drive missed the tape mark). File 740 (TAXIR.FLECS_LISTING.L.002) is incomplete and all the files from there to the end of the tape are missing. The original tape had at least 915 files, so a lot are missing. The other tape was copied without problems. The documentation for this distribution is similar to distribution 4.2.

D5.0 (August 1981)

Distribution 5.0 consisted of three sets of tapes: dump/restore tapes for a one pack system, a utility tape used to get MTS up and running initially, and several *FS format tapes. Only the *FS format tapes have been preserved. They are in d5.0t1.aws through d5.0t4.aws as VLO labeled tapes with volume IDs of 5.0T1 through 5.0T4. There were no problems copying these tapes and they are checksumed *FS tapes so they are probably ok. The documentation for this distribution is similar to the previous ones.

D5.1 (August 1983)

Distribution 5.1 was similar to 5.0 and consisted of dump/restore, utility, and *FS tapes. Only the VLO *FS tapes have been preserved, and there were problems with them. The first and third tape copied without problems, but there were lots of problems with tape 2. File 696 was lost and all files from 815 through the end of the tape (at least file 1271) were lost. What's left of distribution 5.1 is in d5.1t1.aws through d5.1t3.aws as VLO labeled with volume IDs of 5.1T1 through 5.1T3. The documentation for this distribution is similar to distribution 5 except that there aren't any change forms.

D6.0 (April 1988)

Distribution 6.0 was similar to 5.0 and 5.1. It consisted of one utility tape, 3 dump/restore tapes, and 6 *FS tapes (in the 6250 BPI version of the distribution). All of these tapes have been copied to AWSTapes. The utility tape was originally labeled, but the labels were lost when it was copied to a file. The labels were reconstructed from a *LABELSNIFF listing (since they matter) and the result is an AWSTape in d6.0util.aws. The volid is MTSUTL. The *FS tapes are in d6.0tn.aws as VLO tapes with volid 6.0tn (n = 1...6). The dump/restore tapes are all unlabeled tapes in d6.0dr1.aws through d6.0dr3.aws. There were a few problems copying the second dump/restore tape, but it seems to have copied ok in the end. The other tapes copied without trouble.

The documentation for this distribution (which was the last MTS distribution) is similar to the previous ones with the addition of D6.0-MTS-DOC which is a general description of MTS and the MTS Consortium.

D6.0A (January 2012)

Distribution 6.0A is a recently created and repackaged version of D6.0 from 1988. The goal for D6.0A is to make it easier to run the D6.0 version of MTS under Hercules. It is not a true full, partial, or redistribution since it does not include any simulated AWS tapes. Instead it includes simulated disk and other files and documentation for use with Hercules. The D6.0A distribution should be used in conjunction with the materials contained in d6.0.zip or d6.0.tar.gz.

The D6.0A system is based on D6.0 with several updates to fix problems that came to light since 1988 and to make MTS operate more smoothly under Hercules. D6.0A is currently available from the MTS Archive site, but we hope to make is available from Bitsavers.org and Deep Blue in the future. The README-D6.0A.txt file explains what is included in the D6.0A distribution, where it is available, and how to use the material with Hercules.

Mike Alexander Jeff Ogden
mta@umich.edu jeff.ogden@umich.edu

COPYRIGHT.txt – 14 November 2011

Except as explicitly noted elsewhere for specific programs and files, this collection and the individual programs and files that it contains are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0). This license allows you to use, copy, adapt, share, distribute, and transmit the work provided that you attribute the work by including this copyright statement and the name of the work, version number, volume reference, or date of publication that identifies the work in the copies or adaptations you make.

NO WARRANTIES and LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

ALL USE of the programs, files, and documentation that make up the work is AT YOUR OWN RISK. Unless otherwise mutually agreed to by the parties in writing and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, licensor offers the work AS-IS and makes NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND concerning the work, express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, or the absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not discoverable. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so this exclusion may not apply to you. Except to the extent required by applicable law, in no event will licensor be liable to you on any legal theory for any special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages arising out of this license or the use of the work, even if licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.